The Weeping Meadow

Master Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos wrote and directed this downbeat look at his nation’s often blighted history, as seen through the eyes of an unfortunate young couple.  A band of refugees that returns to Greece after the Russian Revolution adopts an orphaned girl, Eleni, who becomes the focus of the story.  Eleni becomes pregnant by her musician half-brother Alexis and bears twin boys, who are sent away at birth.  Many years later she is forced to marry her widowed adopted father.  On her wedding day, Eleni escapes with Alexis to Thessaloniki, where they reunite with their sons.  Their lives are then ripped apart by World War II and the ensuing Greek Civil War.